Going on a road trip, need a power inverter...

[PsychOfMSE]

I've got a MBP and will be charging two iPhones off of it most of the trip. How big of power inverter will I need?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/XOVISION-220W-CONT.-POWER-INVERTER-XO220/9224432

will this provide enough juice?

Thanks!

 

[Tom71]

Are you sure your MBP charger isn't 100-240V (because mine is - you wouldn't need an inverter then)?. And just charge the iphones from the MBP... You don't want to do that for some reason?

 

[PsychOfMSE]

Are you sure your MBP charger isn't 100-240V (because mine is - you wouldn't need an inverter then)?. And just charge the iphones from the MBP... You don't want to do that for some reason?

Not exactly sure, I just know I need some way of pulling power from a car cigarette lighter...

 

[Tom71]

Not exactly sure, I just know I need some way of pulling power from a car cigarette lighter...

OH right, sorry missed the fact that it's a 12 to 220V converter for car use. Well it should be OK. The older power adapters where around 60 Watts (mine now is 75) It's mentioned on the adapter itself. 200 Watts seem to be fine then as you will not be using half of it. I would probably go for it. The iPhones themselves use much less charging current and you might want to get a separate 12V car to USB adapter so you don't need to have the brick sitting there all the time.

 

[PsychOfMSE]

OH right, sorry missed the fact that it's a 12 to 220V converter for car use. Well it should be OK. The older power adapters where around 60 Watts (mine now is 75) It's mentioned on the adapter itself. 200 Watts seem to be fine then as you will not be using half of it. I would probably go for it. The iPhones themselves use much less charging current and you might want to get a separate 12V car to USB adapter so you don't need to have the brick sitting there all the time.

I was planning on just charging the iphones from USB on my MBP. So basically the power inverter will just be used to power the MBP.

I'll give this one a shot and see how it goes!

Thanks!

 

[cytoxyn]

since you are just using the mbp as a charging station why not go with this http://www.walmart.com/ip/Griffin-PowerJolt-Dual-Universal-Power-Adapter/12169296 and not worry about the mbp

 

[m85476585]

The Magsafe is rated for 85W, but to be safe I would get at least a 150W inverter. Cheap inverters put out modified sine power, which is usually a good enough approximation of real AC power, but it can do some strange things. If the power factor of the Magsafe on modified sine power is less than 1, it will take more than an 85W inverter to power an 85W Magsafe at full load. I don't know what the power factor of a Magsafe on an inverter is, but I do know it gets much warmer running off an inverter.

It would probably be a good idea to get the 12V->USB charger linked to above and charge the iphones off that to reduce the load on the Magsafe if you are using the computer heavily. If you put the inverter and USB charger on a cigarette lighter splitter, make sure the splitter can handle the current (usually 10A max for a cigarette lighter outlet).